From Texas, I mostly cover the energy industry and the tycoons who control it. I joined Forbes in 1999 and moved from New York to Houston in 2004. The subjects of my Forbes cover stories have included T. Boone Pickens, Harold Hamm, Aubrey McClendon, Michael Dell, Ross Perot, Exxon, Chevron, Saudi Aramco and more. Follow me on twitter @chrishelman.

10/18/2011 @ 11:54AM101,987 views

Some Tips For The Simpletons of 'Occupy Wall Street'

The following is a guest column by, Richard B. Finger, a private investor with Ariadne Capital LLC, in Houston, Tex. The opinions expressed are his own.

My philosophies may be diametrically opposed to those of the simpletons in the Occupy Wall Street movement, but when it comes to the banks and the government, my anger makes me kindred with them.

I realized this on a recent cool, crisp October morning in Houston. With summer’s gross heat and humidity gone, the weather is finally ripe for complaining. It’s hard for me to remember the last time I attended a rally or demonstration either as observer or participant. “Occupy Houston” had arrived in Texas. Approaching the JP Morgan Chase building, the tallest in Houston, I heard the chants: “We want jobs, we want jobs.” The chants morphed seamlessly into: “Corporate greed has got to go.” The crowd really got lathered up on this one.

An amusing and (previous to me) noted irony is with all the railing and carping over corporate evils, it was hard to miss the Apple I-phones and I-pads. Certainly present were also phones powered by Google’s android system. The Nike swoosh was prevalent. I can only guess the number of these corporation bashers who own Microsoft products. I even saw that elitist Ralph Lauren logo. Hard to know which nefarious corporation makes the cardboard for all those signs, but it is most certainly a big bad one that probably employs a whole lot of people. If they buy “green” electricity, (assuming they purchase any at all), which any demonstrator with an ounce of self-righteousness would, there’s a real good chance they are supporting one of the biggest and “baddest” of them all, wind turbine manufacturer General Electric. Carefully ignored by these do-gooders is the confluence of grand creativity, greed, and billions in profits and millions of jobs these profits and cupidity have created.

Of course, signs with “we are the 99%” were ubiquitous. I have since understood this pithiness as something of a “corporate” logo. Pun intended. Judging from the recent employment reports, a more accurate mantra might drop one of those 9’s.

One twenty something female with a large nose ring and indeterminate hair color told me she really didn’t know what the exact platform was, though her unambiguous paperboard dispatch said, “take from the rich and give to the poor”. Call me prejudice, but if the credibility of an organization is inversely proportional to tattoos and body piercings per square inch, this is a movement of dim prospects. One much older gentleman, (probably fortyish) claimed the Federal Reserve was a private company and should be handed to the government henceforth. I attempted a small dose of enlightenment but quickly met rabid intransigence. Another, a ponytailed stick like figure, explained the movement as one designed to give the country “back to the people”. What? I queried a pregnant woman who had just rushed from yoga class to protest home foreclosures. Apparently, it was monumental injustice that the big bad bank was enforcing its contractual rights in light of over a year of non- payment. Comfort in being surrounded by the same species of fish. Engulfed in a haze of nescience was all I could feel. Amid this scene of “organized chaos” and disjointed dialogues there were some themes that personally resonated. “Bank CEO’s Should Be in Jail” was one. Well, probably at least some of them. Another sign, “JP Morgan’s $10 billion in bonuses belongs to us” might bear some debate.

Since attending the Houston rally, the movement has metastasized globally to include hundreds of thousands or even a several millions. Notwithstanding, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, even egged on by our president, so far, in my opinion, has little more than nuisance value. Defacing parks, mini rioting and getting arrested analogizes them akin to the clutch of ragtag farmers with shovels and pitchforks marching on the local government demanding rain. These people don’t even know what their hostility is about.

With no cohesive defined platform there can be no discernable end game. The only certitude is being very very angry. For sure, there is plenty to be aggravated about. So guess what, I’m really mad too. And polls consistently reveal that so are a vast majority of Americans no matter political stripe. Until late summer 2008 our economy, despite showing some signs of stress and trending down, was pretty much cruising along. And then along came the Lehman bankruptcy, the AIG bailout, TARP, revelation of the extent of the mortgage crisis and associated speculations, and failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. People were minding their own business and all of the sudden a cataclysm occurred. Unemployment soared, bank credit seized up, and our country was in recession. While there is some improvement from the 2009 bottom, the country continues mired in a malaise of slow growth and unacceptable unemployment. The result has been a zeitgeist, heartily promulgated in Washington, of “the banks are evil and it’s all their fault so they are not entitled to profits ever again”. Much more accurate is the top eight to ten banks employ well over one million people. They have paid all of their TARP money back, in full, with interest. These banks have helped and continue to assist millions of people obtain home mortgages and provided businesses, small and large, with working capital and other loans to expand, further increasing employment . When a bank makes a loan the very best outcome it can hope for is to get paid back with interest. What is also true is that there were (and still are) a few really bad apples at the banks, the investment banks (although they are now defined as banks), the ratings agencies, and the GSE’s (Fannie and Freddie).

BUT, in many ways, our system has worked. Banks made loans equal to 90, 95 and even 100% of home values. When homeowners (speculators?) could not meet their mortgage payment obligations, banks enforced their contractual right to foreclose. Borrowers might have lost their down payment (5-10%), but banks were stuck with the rest of the risk and downside. The real loss has been borne by banks and their shareholders. A real transfer of wealth has gone from bank shareholders to defaulting homeowners. Exaggerated anger against the banks might be misdirected.

Though certain that “Occupy Wall Street” participants are in large part diametrically opposed to my economic philosophies, anger is the thread that makes us kindred. Much of the simplistic, often puerile, often non-sensible amorphous ranting ought to be “matured” to a more specific platform. Perhaps my partial list of ills might aid this unorganized mass to channel their indignations more productively:

–While banks accepted government loans and support, bankers felt entitled to billions in bonuses paid in 2008 and 2009. Bank boards were complicit in these awards. Egregious, unfair, and yes, immoral under the circumstances at the time, these should be “clawed back” (repaid back to the banks) and distributed to innocent shareholders who suffered.

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You is exactly what they are protesting for. You simply do not get it.

There is this narrow minded and short sighted taint to your arrogant observations. They are protesting corporate GREED at the expense of others, not corporate profits for doing good, ethical business and providing a service. Corporate greed includes shipping jobs overseas where human rights are lax or non existent purely for profit. Corporate greed is woven into the very companies laws when the ONLY concern is profits, regardless of the human impact. Name dropping corporations that most people have to interact with (consciously or not) does not make your point; in fact it does the opposite.

No body is saying profits are bad. Profits gained by immorally gouging captive customers (BofA +$6 billion, airlines “al carte” rape) IS bad. Testing dangerous designer drugs on 3rd world citizens to sell here for 1000% of cost is evil. Profits are bad when the lifeline that comes from OUR MONEY translates into less loan money, cut credit, and stolen houses from people they used and sold bad mortgages to.

Let’s not be stupid: I understand you don’t have a clue what humans want and need…you are a private investor. However even you need to be honest about what your pals have pulled off. But you won’t. You will contend yourself to your faux superior attitude in order to sleep better; all the while knowing YOU ARE THE PROBLEM TOO.

Every columnist on the Occupy thing has to try to look intelligent and point out the supposed “irony” of protesters using iPhones and wearing Nikes. That’s like saying an anti-government protester is a hypocrite if he uses government-built streets in the act of protesting.

Corporations can and do produce great things, as do governments – it’s excessive corporate thievery and government complacency that is the issue.

Comparing an iPhone as a product to the “products” of the Wall Street Casinos, like CDOs, is like comparing a Honda to the Death Star. Anyone who does not understand this does not understand how value is the underlying driver of all successful economies.

And at least these Chinese Nikes will reliably work tomorrow. Can’t say that about your 401k or your jobs or the suicide loan. No pair of Nikes I’m aware of ever swindled a person of their future or bankrupted the economy.

Mr. Helman’s piece on the Wall Street protesters is mostly accurate, but he misses one salient point: while many now protesting are missing the point of their anger, many more millions of everyday Americans are just as clueless to the esoteric deriavitive instruments he references. The general feeling is that the game has been rigged and the normal ebb and flow of the markets have been heisted by computer geeks and bankers who have been down in the basement devising even more complex and risky schemes, with the complicit approval of career politicians. Sure, the dudes and dudettes that are marching don’t understand the intricacies of Credit Default Swaps (does Wal-Mart sell those?) but most everybody else don’t understand them, either. Then it becomes: you have the money and we want it.